


A Worthy Cause

by Whisper132



Series: The Honorable Society of Meddlers [2]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-01-08
Updated: 2006-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-23 13:08:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/250631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whisper132/pseuds/Whisper132
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Detailing how the Meddlers came about and why Echizen and Momo need to get it together. Features the first appearance of Maruihara in Whisper’s ficverse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

  
It began, as most things did, in the pro shop. Kikumaru was buying grip tape and Jirou was buying a new pair of shoes as the heels in his last pair were all but worn off. Kikumaru saw Jirou from the corner of his eye and, because Seigaku just won against Hyoutei, he kept quiet so as not to attract the other boy’s attention. He thought it was working but, when he went to the counter to pay, Jirou tapped him on the shoulder.

“How’s Tezuka doing?” he asked. He didn’t ask it cheerfully, though, which was good. Kikumaru would’ve hit Jirou between the eyes with the roll of grip tape if he sounded the slightest bit pleased about Tezuka’s injury.

“He’s going to a hospital in Germany to rehabilitate. He’ll be gone for a while.” Kikumaru frowned, looking down to his grip tape; made in China, not for use on machinery.

“I hope he gets better soon.” Jirou paused to pay for his shoes. He paid by debit card. Kikumaru was unaware that middle schoolers could have debit cards. “I’ll get his grip tape, too,” Jirou told the clerk. “It’s a goodwill gesture,” he explained before Kikumaru could protest. “Atobe’s still beating himself up about winning that match. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him upset about winning.”

Kikumaru didn’t have anything to say but, “Thanks for the grip tape.” It felt awkward, talking to a rival like this.

“My car’s waiting outside. Do you need a ride somewhere?” Jirou nodded his head toward a large white vehicle parked outside. Kikumaru wasn’t too up on cars, but he knew that something that big and flashy must’ve cost a lot. The driver probably didn’t come cheap, either.

“I was going to go get something to eat,” Kikumaru confessed after a bit of internal debate. He really shouldn’t be talking to Hyoutei right now, not after what happened to buchou.

“Cool, let’s go. I know this really great steakhouse. I’ll treat.” In a rush of energy, Jirou grabbed Kikumaru and raced to the car. The door opened for them and they dove inside. “You’re fun Kikumaru-kun. We should shop together more often.”

Kikumaru wasn’t sure why he said it. Later, he would say it was the sparkle in Jirou’s eyes. “Sure. I’d like that.”

  
 ** &-& **

  
Their next meeting was, again, in the pro shop. This time, Kikumaru was hunting for a get well present for Tezuka. Jirou was just browsing. “Hey!” Jirou called, quite loudly and quite to the displeasure of the shopkeeper. Jirou spent a lot of money in the shop, though, so he wasn’t going to get kicked out. He could probably set a display on fire, wave his debit card, and be forgiven.

“Hi,” Kikumaru said, his voice almost a whisper.

“Buying anything fun?” Jirou’s idea of fun was probably not Kikumaru’s idea of fun. Maybe, after enough lunches, Jirou could change that. The day they went out for steak Jirou decided that he needed more friends; more non-Hyoutei friends. Hyoutei was a nice place to nap and feel superior and to always watch your back. Jirou was finding that he’d like some of the simple sort of friends, the kind that got big eyes when they saw his car or who talked about nice, normal things during meals. Kikumaru liked to talk about a girl-band called Chocolate.

“I’m getting something for Tezuka.” Kikumaru was examining a bottle of scuff remover for shoes. You didn’t get your ailing buchou scuff remover.

“Let’s go get him a snow globe!” Jirou suggested, tugging at Kikumaru’s sleeve. Snow globes were pretty.

“Do they make tennis snow globes?” Kikumaru looked around the shop and frowned. “I don’t see any.”

“Not a tennis snow globe! He plays tennis, he probably has everything he needs. You should get him something not-tennis. Something fun.” Jirou was bouncing just slightly, causing a nearby display to wobble.

“Like those little sushi erasers? They’re pretty fun.” Kikumaru’s eyes were starting to light up.

“Yeah, like those! Come on!” Once more, Jirou found himself pulling Kikumaru out of the pro shop and into his car. They were going to make Tezuka a basket of useless, fun things and he was going to like it. Well, he didn’t really seem like the type to like cute things, but it didn’t matter. He was probably too polite to get rid of them.

  
 ** &-& **

  
Kikumaru received a thank you text message from Tezuka. It was very polite, which meant that Tezuka was putting the basket in the corner and trying to forget about it. That was okay. He knew Kikumaru cared, which was the important part. The erasers would come in handy when Tezuka returned to school. The bobble heads…well, they were circus animals, and there was always a use for circus animals.

Two weeks passed before Kikumaru’s cell phone jingled out Chocolate’s latest single, “Cherry Mousse Love.” The caller ID listed “friend” as the caller. Both Kikumaru and Jirou thought it best to keep their evolving friendship a secret from their teammates and thus had cleverly disguised their cell phone entries for one another. Secret meetings were far more fun than ones everyone knew about. Jirou also thought Atobe would get mad and, according to Jirou, if Atobe was mad, Jirou would have to spend weeks soothing Atobe’s anger before he would be allowed to nap at practice again. Kikumaru thought Oishi would understand, but would also be upset. An upset Oishi was like a can of Ponta that had been on Momo’s bike for a week before being opened. Oishi would fizzle on the inside until something made him pop and…well, maybe he wasn’t that much like Ponta. He was really high strung, though. Sometimes Kikumaru wondered if it might be good for Oishi to go on sedatives every now and then. He was going to be an old man with high blood pressure by the time nationals were over.

“Eiji, you there?”

“Sorry, I was just thinking about something. What’s up?” Kikumaru looked down at his desk, remembering that he had an exam to study for. He shouldn’t go out if Jirou asked him to.

“You doing anything?”

“I’ve got to study for a test. Biology.” Kikumaru hated biology. It was full of long, foreign words that his tongue just couldn’t wrap around. Also, the tests were long. Also, sensei was very strict when grading.

Either Jirou grumbled a little or there was some static on the line. Kikumaru wasn’t sure which. Finally, Jirou said, “I was going to see if you wanted to go to an arcade. Atobe says they’re for low-life street trash with nothing better to do with their time, so they must be really fun.”

Kikumaru’s elbow accidentally hit the biology book into the trash can. “You’ve never been to an arcade?” There were some used tissues in the bin, too, so picking up the book would be unsanitary. He’d need to use gloves. “I know a really neat one down by the street tennis courts by Fudomine.”

“You have to study, though.” Jirou was reprimanding Kikumaru the way a five year old tells his mother that the chocolate on his mouth wasn’t from the cookies currently missing from the jar, but from the cocoa tree that sprouted in the cactus pot and mystically disappeared before she got home.

In order to get the gloves to get the book out of the trash can, Kikumaru would have to go into the kitchen and search around in his mother’s special drawer. Kikumaru was conditioned to never, under any circumstances, go into his mother’s drawer. Problem solved, then. “I’ll get a C no matter what I do. I don’t think sensei even reads my tests. Meet me there in half an hour?”

“Deal.”

  
 ** &-& **

  
Jirou was dazzled by the lights and high-bass music of the arcade. He was also dazzled by the DDR junkies who were spinning and doing hand-stands to the music. “Cool,” Jirou decided aloud. “Atobe doesn’t know what he’s missing.” He pointed to the DDR players. “That has to be good training.”

“Is that Kamio-kun?” Kikumaru pointed to a machine a little farther down. He made a shushing gesture and began to covertly move toward the Kamio or Kamio look-alike. Covert movement involved running from console to console, ducking back any time the Kamio or Kamio look-alike turned his head.

Jirou was one for a more direct approach. “Kamio-kun!” Jirou waved and ran forward, summoning up a reserve of energy that could power a small island nation for a week.

The frightened boy clutching the DDR guardrail was, in fact, Kamio Akira. “H-hey.”

“Akutagawa-kun, you ruined it!” Kikumaru complained, stomping up. A Tekken player glared at Eiji for bumping his elbow on the way over.

“You were taking too long,” Jirou explained, sticking his tongue out. “Do you play, Kamio-kun?” Jirou pointed to the DDR machine.

“I use it to test my rhythm.”

Jirou figured Kamio would say something like that. “Told you it would be a good training device,” he told Kikumaru, who was still pouting. Kikumaru liked to pout a lot. Jirou would pout, too, if people stopped, stared, and went ‘oh, how cute’ every time he did so. Pouting was Kikumaru’s not-so-secret weapon, and he used it well.

In the first two weeks of their acquaintance, Jirou learned a lot about Kikumaru. First, Kikumaru was smart. He wasn’t smart like Oshitari; he was smart like Jirou was smart. Kikumaru knew how to get his way by making you think you were getting your way. Eiji was a master manipulator and a man after Jirou’s own heart. Second, Kikumaru liked to trick people, particularly people who were rude to his friends. Jirou was sure he and Kikumaru-kun were going to be good friends - and even better accomplices.

Kamio was trying to blend back into the throng of arcade junkies. Kikumaru quickly ran up and draped himself over Kamio’s back, cutting off his exit. “I’m showing Akutagawa-kun the arcade. He’s never been to one.”

Kamio’s knees were slowly buckling under Eiji’s weight. “Please get off of me,” Kamio asked, wincing. He probably wasn’t used to being around social people. Fudomine needed to get out more. Kamio’s eyes scrunched up and his head turned. “What was that noise?”

“What noise?” Jirou asked. They were in an arcade; it was hard to hear one noise above the other twelve hundred noises; pinging, bleeping, and thrumming together in perfect discord.

“My stomach,” Kikumaru admitted, sliding off of Kamio’s back. “I skipped lunch so I could get here on time. We should go get some burgers. I’ll treat this time.”

Another thing Jirou learned about Kikumaru was that he didn’t like to feel like a burden. After Jirou bought something, Kikumaru would reciprocate, usually in the form of burgers, shakes, or a quick ramen lunch. Atobe never let Jirou buy when they went out together, except when Jirou stole Atobe’s wallet. It was fair, though, because Jirou never let Atobe decide where they ate, or where they took holiday, or what linens Atobe would purchase. Left to his own devices, Atobe bought scratchy sheets because they looked good. Jirou threw them out and made his boyfriend buy nice satin sheets that were cool and shiny and slippery fun. Atobe barely slept anyway, so what did he care?

“Come on Kamio-kun!” Jirou hooked Kamio’s arm in his own before Kamio could make a break for it. Kamio needed to loosen up, and Jirou and Eiji were experts in fun.

  
 ** &-& **

  
“Is that Momoshiro-kun?” Kamio asked as they walked up to the Happy Burger. If there was one person Kamio knew from a distance…well, it was Tachibana, but if there was a second, it would be Momoshiro Takeshi.

Kikumaru stopped reciting things he was going to order long enough to look. “Yep. He’s eating with ochibi.” Kamio could tell there were thoughts bubbling in Kikumaru’s mind. Kikumaru’s eyes darted around a lot when he was thinking. “Hey, you think they’re on a date?”

“I think they’re eating hamburgers,” Kamio said, noting how Akutagawa-kun’s interest was immediately caught by the prospect of Momo and Echizen being on a date.

“We should investigate,” Jirou whispered, pulling Kamio and Kikumaru around into an alley. “Kamio, you go in and distract them. Eiji and I will plant ourselves inside. Give us five minutes, then go to the bathroom, where Eiji will slip a note detailing our location. Make it there as quietly and quickly as possible.” Jirou was smiling, his teeth gleaming white in the murky alley.

This was a stupid idea. All the same, it was a chance to mess with Momo, which was a high priority on Kamio’s list of things to do. “Alright.” Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to play spy for a few minutes. Kikumaru was buying the burgers, after all.

“Project Momo-chibi Date-o, commence!” Kikumaru whispered before shoving Kamio out of the alley and into a combustibles bin. Smiling at the old lady who looked concerned, Kamio removed a candy bar wrapper from his sleeve and walked into the Happy Burger.

  
 ** &-& **

  
“He’s good,” Kikumaru whispered to Jirou. They had to whisper; they were on a secret mission. “Momo and ochibi haven’t looked this way once.” Kikumaru watched Kamio talk, his hands moving quickly, his voice just loud enough for Kikumaru’s expert senses to hear.

“He would definitely be an asset to any covert operation,” Jirou agreed, munching on a fry. “You’d never suspect him. He’s too…too…”

“Nervous?” Kikumaru supplied. “But look at him,” Kikumaru gestured to Kamio with his straw, “he’s 100 percent confident right now.” It was true. Kamio was retelling the story of how Tachibana fixed his tennis bag, and was doing so without a stutter or a change of pitch. Momo and Echizen were completely taken in by Kamio’s enthusiasm.

“Kamio-kun should hang out with us more often,” Jirou decided. “It’s good for his self-esteem.”

“Agreed.” Kikumaru raised his cola and they toasted to their newest friend.

  
 ** &-& **

  
“Turns out they were just coming back from the street courts,” Kamio told Kikumaru and Jirou. “Echizen got the final point in a match, so Momo had to buy hamburgers.”

“You sound disappointed,” Jirou laughed, sipping at his ninth refill. After Echizen and Momoshiro left, the trio of friends remained behind, getting the most out of the Ultimate Fry Bucket (free refills) and the Mega Thirst Cola (also free refills).

“I thought he would make a move by now,” Kamio admitted, though nervously. “You can tell he likes the kid.”

“Momo? I thought he liked Kaidoh,” Kikumaru scooted his chair closer and lowered his voice.

“Nah, he’s into that data guy of yours.” Jirou passed his cola to Kamio, who looked like his blood sugar was low. “But I don’t think I’d say Momo likes Echizen that way.”

Kamio laughed, reaching for some fries. “Echizen is the only one that idiot will let get a word in. You should come watch them at the street courts, they’re there almost every weekend, playing doubles. They really suck.”

Jirou watched Kamio assault the fry bucket. “Do you want me to go get a refill?” he asked as Kamio shoveled handful after handful of fries into his mouth.

“Nah, I just need the salt.” Kamio slowed down his consumption of the fries, taking a long drink of cola. “So, what are we gonna do about it?”

“Do about what?” Jirou asked, passing Kamio a napkin. “You’ve got salt all over your face.”

“Thanks.” Kamio cleaned himself up. “Do about those two. You’re not going to let them just go on like that, are you?”

It was then that Jirou realized he’d been had. Judging from the look on Eiji’s face, the acrobat realized it, too. Kamio was the one who suggested going to Happy Burger. He said that the refills would be worth the extra walk. He was the one who pointed out the two Seigaku members in the restaurant. “You planned this,” Jirou accused, trying not to laugh.

“You didn’t think I could do it on my own, did you?” Kamio mumbled around a mouthful of fries.

Jirou and Kikumaru laughed, loud enough to draw stares from the other patrons. “We need to find a better place to talk about this,” Kikumaru whispered. “We don’t want anyone else hearing.”

“I know a really good ice cream place. It’s over by Rikkaidai, so we don’t have to worry about our teammates finding out. A banana split sounds really good about now.” Jirou could picture it now, a huge pile of ice cream and whipped cream. Atobe didn’t like ice cream, so Jirou rarely got to go. Having new friends was awesome.

“I’m game,” Kamio said, using a napkin to clean up the table a bit.

“Me too. Let’s go.” Kikumaru slid all of their garbage into the now empty fry bucket.


	2. Chapter 2

“This is impressive.” Kamio looked at the dessert menu. It was in a leather sleeve. Good thing Jirou was paying; Kamio would have to save up for a month to be able to afford the Chocolate Blitzer, which was what he was going to order. The menu claimed that the dessert would send you into chocolate fits of ecstasy. Kamio could go for that about now.

“Isn’t that Marui from Rikkai?” Jirou whispered. “I remember him from nationals last year.” Jirou scowled a bit. Hyoutei went down to Rikkai the previous year. Kamio wasn’t there to see it, but he heard that the Hyoutei-Rikkai matches were long and bitter.

“Yep, looks like.” Kikumaru craned his neck around. Kamio thought only owls could perform that particular trick.

“If we ignore him, maybe he’ll go away.” Jirou brought his menu up to cover his face. Kamio followed suit and soon found out that whispering through a menu was not the best of ideas.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you three here together!” Also, Marui was already walking over, smiling and waving. “Are you having some sort of secret meeting or something?”

“No.” Jirou replied through a yawn. “I was sleeping and didn’t get off at my stop. Kikumaru-kun and Kamio-kun are making sure I don’t fall asleep again.” Jirou yawned again.

“Get the Chocolate Blitzer, then. It’ll keep you up. Or, if you _really_ want a buzz, try the Caramel Hurricane.” Marui continued to give his suggestions, reciting nearly the entire menu. Kamio stopped listening at the Mint Mauler-Blaster Shake.

  
 ** &-& **

  
Marui wasn’t leaving. Jirou faked sleep three times, but to no avail. The pink haired boy refused to be shaken off. Currently, Marui was sitting at the table, discussing doubles technique with Kikumaru. The two seemed to be getting on well, which was all well and good, but there was business to be dealt with. Jirou would just have to take a stand. “Excuse me, Marui-kun, but we have some things we’d like to discuss.”

“I thought you were just trying to get home,” Marui laughed, waving over a waitress. “We’ll have Chocolate Blitzers all around please.” Marui smiled at the waitress and waved her goodbye as she left. “She’s really nice. She puts extra whipped cream on everything. So, you were saying, Akutagawa-kun?” Marui was cheeky, and Jirou, as a rule, didn’t like cheeky people. They made things difficult.

“We’re trying to get ochibi and Momo together. They’d be cute.” Trust Kikumaru to ruin any hopes of getting Marui to leave.

“Oh, it’s one of _those_ things. I know all about that. Earlier this year, I had to get Niou and Yagyuu together. That was a tough one. It was worth it, though. They’re a killer doubles team.” Marui grinned at Kikumaru. “Probably better than your Golden Pair.”

“ _Nobody_ is better than the Golden Pair.” Kikumaru said it as a matter of fact. Jirou admired Kikumaru’s confidence, particularly since Kikumaru and Oishi took a beating from Rikkai at last year’s competition.

“Can we not fight?” Kamio asked from behind his menu. He was holding it like a barrier between him and the dueling doubles specialists.

“I’m not fighting.” Marui smiled, a slow, falsely happy smile. “I’m waiting for you to let me in on the deal.” He scooted closer to Kikumaru. “Rikkai’s been boring lately. I want to hang out with you guys.”

“No.” Kikumaru scooted away, moving toward Jirou in the round booth.

“Stop fighting,” Kamio snarled, snapping his menu closed.

“He insulted me. I don’t want to be friends with him.” Kikumaru turned his head away from Marui. Jirou saw the hidden corner of Kikumaru’s mouth quirk up.

“You need a genius like me on your team,” Marui countered, also smiling. “I’ll even pay for dessert as a goodwill gesture.”

“Even if I want another Chocolate Blitzer?” Kikumaru asked, his grin widening.

“Sure.” Marui agreed. Jirou didn’t think Marui quite understood what he was getting into.

“How about if I want a Toffee Tornado Cake, too?”

“Fine.”

Kikumaru cackled. Jirou waited for Marui to realize he had been tricked. Kamio put his head down on the table. Marui simply continued to smile. “I won a bet against our waitress, Meriko-chan, so whatever I order is on the house today,” Marui explained, baring his teeth in glee.

Kikumaru’s shoulders drooped. Kamio let out a noise somewhere between a snort and a walrus’ mating call. Jirou extended his hand across the table. “Welcome to the Club.”

  
 ** &-& **

  
The meeting lasted until the sun set and Meriko’s shift was over. The three didn’t get anything particularly useful done, but they did manage to consume four desserts each, which was more than Kamio was used to, it seemed. He was buzzing around the street like a five year old. Marui, on the other hand, was walking calmly, thinking aloud. “So,” he said, turning to Jirou, “you guys don’t have an attack plan at all?” The chocolate taste in Marui’s mouth was fading. He took out a stick of bubble gum and began chewing.

“We were going to come up with one at the parlor, but _someone_ distracted us,” Kikumaru cut in. He was smiling, though, so Marui chose not to be offended.

“Let’s split up and think about it for the night. We’ll get together tomorrow and come up with a plan.” Jirou’s eyes were beginning to slide closed. “I shouldn’t have eaten so much, I’m getting sleepy.”

“I have to practice with Tachibana tomorrow, so I’ll be a little late,” Kamio mumbled. He was blushing. Marui caught Kikumaru’s eye and raised an eyebrow in inquiry. Kikumaru shrugged and mouthed “later.”

“We meeting at the same place?” Kikumaru asked. He was bouncing now.

“We’ll have to pay for things, though.” Marui hoped they wouldn’t want to go again. He was broke and wouldn’t be able to afford another Blitzer until allowance, which was a week away.

“I’ve got it covered,” Jirou yawned. Jirou’s pace was slowing. Kamio was supporting the volley specialist as they walked. “I’m gonna call for the car. You guys go ahead.” Jirou blinked and took out his cell phone. Marui would’ve moved on, but the other two weren’t. “Hey, it’s me,” Jirou said into the phone. He was smiling a goofy smile, like Kamio did when he talked about Tachibana, which he did at least once every five minutes. “Sorry, I fell asleep and ended up near Rikkai. Come get me?” Jirou’s grin widened. “Great, see you in a bit.” It was then that Jirou noticed he had an audience.

“So,” Kikumaru slung an arm around Jirou’s shoulders. “Who was that?”

“That was no one.” Jirou began to snore. Marui began to suspect that Jirou was never as sleepy as he pretended to be.

“You can tell us,” Kikumaru protested. “We’re brothers now!”

Jirou’s eyes opened again and he watched them all in turn. Marui thought that Jirou’s full attention was a bit scary and not something he wanted to be the subject of any time soon. Finally, Jirou sighed and relented. “That was Atobe. He’s going to be here soon, so you better get going. He won’t be happy if he finds out I’ve been out with all of you.” Jirou shrugged. “You know how it is.”

Marui didn’t know how it was, but he suspected Kikumaru did because the boy let Jirou go and waved for everyone to leave the volley specialist be. Marui stopped walking and turned to his two remaining friends. “I’m going to head home. See you guys tomorrow.”

“See you!” Kikumaru surprised Marui by giving him a hug. “I’m glad we met today.” Kamio waved and jogged ahead of Kikumaru, who was now bouncing down the street.

  
 ** &-& **

  
Echizen was not normally a paranoid person, but there was definitely someone following him today. More than once, he turned to find a bush shaking or curtains swaying. It was probably one of those crazy fangirls, but it could also be a spy from their next opponent. Inui-senpai said there were more scouts hiding around campus after the Hyoutei game. Everyone wanted to know what Seigaku was going to do without their buchou to support them.

“Oi, Echizen!” Momo bounded out of the clubhouse, waving. Sometimes Momo-senpai was embarrassingly loud.

“Momo-senpai, you should finish getting dressed before you leave the clubhouse.” Echizen pointed to Momo’s side. His shirt was riding up and his boxers were showing above his warm-ups. Momo was wearing solid blue boxers today. He wore red Scottie dog boxers yesterday. Echizen saw them on accident while they were changing. He wasn’t looking on purpose.

Momo laughed and righted his clothing. “Oops, guess I was in a hurry. Let’s warm up before Oishi-senpai gets here.” The sophomore grabbed Echizen’s hand and pulled the freshman toward the courts.

Echizen pulled his hand free as soon as they got to the courts. “That hurt, Momo-senpai,” he grumbled, trying to shake the tingly feeling out of his hand. You couldn’t play if your hand was having pins-and-needles.

“Don’t be such a whiner, Echizen. You’re fine.” Momo slapped Echizen on the back. “You serve, but none of that Twist Serve business, we’re just warming up.” Momo-senpai laughed and strutted to his side of the court.

Momo-senpai never walked anywhere. He always strutted or swaggered, moving himself in such a way that everyone noticed he was there. Echizen didn’t like how Momo put himself on display all the time, exuding so much confidence, even when Momo lost as much as he won. It reminded Ryoma of his father, and he never wanted to compare Momo to that old man. In fact, Ryoma wanted to keep the two as far apart as possible.

Ryoma opened the warm-up with a Twist Serve, simply because Momo-senpai said not to. Whenever Momo said _not_ to do something, it was his way of asking Echizen to do it. That was the system, at least this week. Echizen would change it next week because no one told him what to do, especially Momo-senpai.

  
 ** &-& **

  
“He was _so_ watching Momoshiro’s abs during that Dunk Smash,” Kamio whispered to Jirou. They were hiding in a bush, taking notes on Echizen and Momoshiro’s interactions.

“Momoshiro doesn’t seem to be noticing, though.” Jirou pointed to where Momo was stretching. He wasn’t so much as looking at Echizen while the freshman lifted his shirt and wiped his face.

“Not much to notice. Echizen doesn’t have Momo’s bulk.” Kamio pulled them back further into the bush as Inui passed.

“So, our main problem is getting Momo to notice Echizen, then. We can do that, easy.” Jirou pulled Kamio back further. “Let’s go down to the street courts. We need to position ourselves there for their after-practice game.” Jirou asked around and found out that Momo and Echizen regularly appeared at the street tennis courts on Tuesdays, circa 6pm. Jirou and Kamio were going to observe them there while Marui observed the pair at the Happy Burger. Echizen and Momoshiro never competed against Marui before, so the Rikkai player could stand in open view and be safe.

“I think I’ve got that covered,” Kamio whispered. “I need to call Shinji for it to work, but I think I’ve got it. I’ll meet you at the courts in a little bit.” Kamio dashed off, leaving Jirou alone to wait until Inui wasn’t looking again. Kamio rustled the bushes a little too much on his way out. Inui was prodding at the front of the bushes with his data notebook. Jirou would have to teach Kamio some of the finer points of spying, the first being; don’t get caught.

  
 ** &-& **

  
Momoshiro felt exposed. He wasn’t ashamed of his body, but there were a lot of people at the courts tonight, and it was a little cold out. Also, he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Momo couldn’t remember _why_ he wasn’t wearing a shirt, it had something to do with something Kamio said, insulting Echizen. Maybe it was a bet. The point was, Momo was playing tennis without a shirt and Echizen was staring at him.

“Momo-senpai, it’s your serve.” Echizen tugged his hat down.

“Sorry, sorry. I was thinking.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Kamio snorted. Kamio could really be an ass sometimes.

“I wouldn’t talk like that until you’ve won, Kamio-kun.” Momo served, hard and fast. Kamio returned the ball. Kamio and Ibu were a good doubles team. Momo was aware he and Echizen…had some things they needed to work on. For example, they needed to not run into eachother on the court.

“Match point,” Ibu called. “We win. Not that we ever thought we would lose. I don’t know why Kamio insisted we come here. Unless we play against tough opponents we’re never going to improve. I would’ve done better if I could’ve played singles against Echizen, but he won’t play against me because he’s still mad about that eye thing, which wasn’t even my fault. Everyone still blames me for it, though, even though his eyesight is fine and…”

“Shinji. Stop.” Kamio pulled Ibu to the net and everyone shook hands. “It’s time for us to go, see you next time.”

Momo turned to his tennis bag, frowning. He hated losing, especially to Kamio.

“Momo-senpai, our shirts are gone.” Echizen was still standing on the court. He was watching Ibu and Kamio leave.

“Huh?”

“Our shirts, someone’s stolen them.”


	3. Chapter 3

  
Marui looked at Momo’s shirt. “Early Front Side? What does Early Front Side mean?” He showed the garment to Jirou, who shrugged.

“Maybe it’s the brand?” Jirou offered while examining Echizen’s shirt. “This thing is all worn out. Does he wear it everyday?”

Marui shrugged. Seigaku was weird, with their Early Front Side and their bad doubles formations. “Tezuka actually let those two compete in an official match?” That was like asking Kirihara to play doubles. It was just a bad idea.

“So I’ve heard. I didn’t see the match, though. It was against an easy team, so they won.” Jirou was still inspecting Echizen’s shirt. “There’s a hole in the armpit.” Jirou poked his finger through said hole. “His parents let him go out in a shirt with a hole in the armpit?” He threw the shirt into a trash can.

“Hey!” Marui fished the shirt out of the trash and shook it off. “Maybe it has sentimental value.” And, if it didn’t now, it would later, when it became the shirt Echizen lost the day he found Momo. Yeah, that had a nice ring to it.

“What are you grinning at?”

“I’m a genius.” Marui waved the shirts in front of Jirou’s face. “Come on, we need to break into Seigaku’s clubhouse and put these away.” Oh yes, Marui had a wonderful, devilish, tensai-type plan.

  
 **& -&**

  
“Ochibi, why is Momo’s shirt in your locker?” Kikumaru bounded over and took the shirt from Echizen, who was staring at it like it was a live viper. Kikumaru dangled the shirt over Echizen’s head. “It’s all sweaty, too. Why would you want a smelly Momo shirt?”

“So that’s where my shirt went!” Of course Momo-senpai would have to enter and say the wrong thing. It seemed to be the way Echizen’s day was heading. First oyaji made fun of him for drinking milk, then there was a pop quiz in math, then Momo-senpai’s shirt shows up in the very last place it should be and Momo-senpai and Kikumaru-senpai have to be loud about it.

“Is there something you’d like to tell us, Echizen?” Fuji-senpai stood behind Kikumaru, smiling. Echizen really didn’t like Fuji senpai’s smiles.

“Practice is starting,” Echizen mumbled, closing his locker.

“Hoi hoi! Ochibi is blushing!”

Echizen made a mental note to accidentally send a Twist Serve into Kikumaru’s chin in the near future.

  
 **& -&**

  
Momo wasn’t quite sure what to make of anything, all he knew was that sitting on Echizen’s bed, trying to study English wasn’t working. The problem with English, he reasoned, was the adverbs. If you were running, who cared if you were doing it quickly or spookily or whatily. You were running, and you better keep running or Oishi-senpai would text Tezuka-buchou and you’d have to do another twenty laps for insubordination.

Okay, and Momo was still a little bit bothered about the teasing during practice. True, the teasing wasn’t aimed at him, but Momo was still part of the teasing. Besides, Echizen was his friend, a friend who knew adverbs and interjections and could help Momo not fail his test and get suspended from the team for bad grades.

“Momo-senpai, you’re not working.”

Still, Kikumaru didn’t have to lay into Echizen like that. He could’ve just let the kid off with a few jokes and been on his way, but Kikumaru had to make a spectacle of it. And worse, Kikumaru-senpai laughed at the shirt, which was rude because it was one of Momo’s favorites. You didn’t find a shirt with a cool saying like “Early Front Side” everyday. Momo saved up for that shirt and even convinced his mom to take him shopping down in Shibuya to buy it.

“Momo-senpai, you’re going to fail your test.”

It was a special shirt, one he only wore when he needed extra luck. Now the shirt was dirty and smelly and still in Echizen’s locker because Momo didn’t have the nerve to walk up to Echizen and ask for his shirt back, not after the ruckus Kikumaru made. The Mamushi was watching, too, and Momo didn’t want Kaidoh thinking that he and Echizen were like that, because the Mamushi would hold it over him for the rest of the year and probably into the next. Once Kaidoh sunk his fangs into something that agitated Momo, he just kept at it until Momo exploded and had to run laps for exploding. Kaidoh was learning from all that time he spent with Inui-senpai.

“Mo-mo-sen-pai!”

Momo toppled off the bed as a trash can hit him in the head. “Echizen, I’m trying to study!” Momo glared at his small tutor but found that meeting Echizen’s gaze was pretty uncomfortable right now.

“Momo-senpai you weren’t studying, you were daydreaming. If you’re going to daydream, do it aloud and in English.” Echizen stood from his desk and righted the trash can. He pointed at Momo’s English text. “Adverbs.”

  
 **& -&**

  
“Where are they?” Marui sighed, taking in the street courts with a snort. “They should be here.”

“Maybe they’re not coming today,” Jiroh yawned. Watching mediocre tennis always put him to sleep. “If they’re not going to come, we should go find them.”

“I’ll call Kikumaru and see if he’s heard anything.” Marui took out his cell phone and dialed “Spazzy Cat.” Jiroh could hear it ringing through to voicemail. Marui needed to turn his cell volume down. “Damn.”

“No answer?” Jiroh sprawled out on the concrete bench. “We’ll just have to wait here until they arrive or Eiji checks his voicemail.”

“I’m calling Kamio.” Marui dialed “Jumping Bean.” Jiroh wasn’t sure why Marui chose “Jumping Bean” as Kamio’s alias, but Kamio was going to be hacked when he found out. “Oi Akira-kun, the subjects aren’t at their usual venue.”

Jiroh tuned Marui’s chorus of agreement noises out in favor of a small nap. Marui would wake him up if anything important happened, which was unlikely.

  
 **& -&**

  
Momo was looking at him again. Normally this wouldn’t bother Ryoma but, in light of the teasing that day, Echizen would prefer that Momo just study his English and go home. If Echizen were honest with himself, he’d admit to a slight partiality for his loud-mouthed senpai. He might even go so far as to say that he enjoyed playing doubles with Momo on their usual afternoons out. Unfortunately, Echizen’s honesty was currently being overridden by his need for his teammates, Kikumaru-senpai especially, to stop prodding into matters that didn’t concern them. Also, Echizen was fairly certain that Momo had a crush on Kaidoh.

Kaidoh-senpai wasn’t bad looking, Echizen supposed. He was a little hard to talk to, though, and really violent. Also, Kaidoh-senpai was going out with Inui-senpai. The two never talked about it, but Echizen saw Inui kissing Kaidoh by the river one afternoon. Unless the kissing was some sort of new breathing exercise, there was more going on with the newly formed doubles team than they let on.

“Echizen, how do you conjugate this?” Momo shoved his workbook under Echizen’s nose.

Echizen wrote out the declension of “to see” and sighed. “That’s an easy one, Momo-senpai. You should know it.”

Momo snatched his notebook back. “It’s hard! Besides, you don’t need to know English if you play tennis.”

That was what Momo always said when pressured about his studies. Echizen always replied with, “You’re going to be kicked off the team if your grades slip, Momo-senpai.” Momo wasn’t stupid. Echizen wished his senpai would apply himself a little more.

Momo laughed and scratched at his head. “I’m fine! I’ve got you to tutor me, so I can’t fail my exam.”

“I can’t teach you an entire language in a week, Momo-senpai. You need to study on your own, too.” Echizen was vaguely aware that he sounded like Ryuzaki-sensei. She was always lecturing the first and second years on the importance of keeping up studies. Echizen didn’t need to study, but chose to anyway. Oyaji would get on Ryoma’s case if his grades slipped below immaculate.

“It’s easier when you’re around. I don’t get so distracted.” Momo twirled his pencil around his fingers and set back to his workbook.

Echizen was going to regret this, and if word got out, Kikumaru-senpai was never going to shut up. “You can stay here tonight and study if you want. Just don’t make too much noise, I have to study for a Chemistry test.” Echizen moved to his desk and opened his Chemistry book.

“You’re the best, Echizen.”

“Study, Momo-senpai.”

  
 **& -&**

  
It took a while, but Kikumaru finally found out from Inui that Momo was studying at Echizen’s house. Kamio ran to Momo’s house to wait in secondary position in case the smash specialist came back and overheard Momo’s mother giving approval for Momoshiro to stay at Echizen’s for the night. So, Marui and Jiroh ran, after acquiring directions from Kikumaru, to Echizen’s house to spy.

“Sugoi!” Jiroh watched Marui scale the side of Echizen’s house, using nothing but a few decorative beams to hold him up. “Go up and a little more to the left. It’s that window right there,” Jiroh said into his cell. Marui was using a hands-free set. This felt just like a movie.

“Roger that. I hear some talking so I’m going into silent mode. Give the signal if we’re in danger.” Marui climbed up a little further and peeked into the bedroom.

  
 **& -&**

  
Momo was trying to sleep, but a scratching at the wall was keeping him up. It wasn’t Karupin; the Himalayan cat was nestled, rather cutely, on Echizen’s chest. It wasn’t the wind, either. The window was open to let some cool night air in, but none of the papers on Echizen’s desk were moving. The noise sounded more as if a squirrel were climbing up the side of the house. Momo wasn’t going to get any sleep like this.

“Guess I’ll just study,” he yawned, moving to the desk, stretching a bit. Echizen’s guest futon wasn’t the most comfortable. Momo’d slept on grass that was much better. He opened his cell phone – he didn’t want the desk lamp to wake Echizen – and began going over the vocabulary list for the test. “Robust.” That was a funny sounding word. Momo continued to mumble the words aloud, hoping that they would stick. It was a lot easier when Echizen was using them in sentences and all Momo had to do was listen.

The wall scraped again.

Momoshiro walked quietly to the window and stuck his head out; nothing. He trudged back to his vocabulary. “Reticulated,” he mumbled, garbling up the last half of the word.

“Momo-senpai, what are you doing?” Echizen’s voice was thick with sleep and inhaled cat hair.

“Nubile,” Momo continued, garbling the word again.

“You said it wrong, Momo-senpai. Go to bed.” Echizen’s complaint was accented by Karupin’s yowl of disapproval at being jostled.

“Plentiful.” Momo set his pen down. “These words are stupid, Echizen.”

Echizen slid out of bed and stomped over to the desk. He grabbed Momo’s arm and, in a show of strength that had Momo’s jaw slackened slightly, shoved his senpai onto the abandoned guest bedroll. “Go to bed, Momo-senpai.” Echizen crawled back onto his bed and curled around Karupin.

“Agitated,” Momo whispered. “Grumpy.” Momo lifted his head and watched Echizen’s arm curl around his cat. “Nubile.”


	4. Chapter 4

  
Kamio scanned through his notes, a transcript of a text meeting between himself and Marui. Marui transmitted his notes from the previous night’s scouting to all concerned parties and, while they were thorough, they were…boring. Momo was never going to leave Tachibana-san’s sister alone if Echizen didn’t do something. An was getting uppity about her “Momoshiro-kun” and it was putting Kippei in Ultra-Brother Mode. If Kippei was in Ultra-Brother Mode, he wasn’t in Notice Kamio Mode.

The Shirt Project didn’t work, so another plan needed to be formed, and quickly. Kamio paced in the Fudomine changing room. Echizen and Momo would be going to the street courts today for sure. That gave Kamio two hours to think of something. Marui was doing doubles training tonight, so he wouldn’t be able to go, and Jirou was “busy” with “things.” Kikumaru was also “busy” with “things.” That was fine, Kamio could do it himself…so long as Ibu-kun was free.

&-&

There was an Inui-blockade locking Momo into the Regulars clubhouse. The Inui-blockade was holding a notebook and tapping it against his folded arms. “Ah, Inui-senpai…can I help you?” Momo took a few steps away from Inui. Inui kept Inui Juice in his locker. There was a biohazard sticker on the thermos.

Inui adjusted his glasses and opened his notebook. “According to my data, you are going to argue with Kaidoh today.” Inui looked up from his book and the light glinted off his glasses. Momo took another step back, his calves brushing against a changing bench. “However, I’ve come to request that you avoid fighting with Kaidoh. It will be detrimental to my plans.”

Momo stood tall in the face of juice-death. “I only fight because he starts it,” Momo argued. It was true, too. The Mamushi was always glaring or hissing things to rile Momo up. The Mamushi’s very existence was created to go against everything that Momo stood for. Kaidoh could also bench press more than Momo, which was embarrassing and something Momo was going to change as soon as Inui-senpai moved and let him get to the weight room.

“My data says otherwise.” Inui adjusted his glasses and sat down on the bench, gesturing for Momoshiro to do so as well.

Momoshiro sat, but did so as far from Inui as manners would allow. “No offense, senpai, but you get distracted sometimes, so I wouldn’t trust that data too much.”

Inui flipped the pages in his notebook. “When Kaidoh is present, 40 percent of my attention is diverted to the fluctuations of his shirt, particularly while he’s practicing his Snake. 20 percent of my attention is focused on his shorts. They ride up 59 percent more than they should. I am endeavoring to find a length that will allow for optimal movement but maximum coverage. I cannot do this without more data.” Momo didn’t believe it, but let Inui continue. “10 percent of my attention is on Kaidoh’s opponent. The other 20 percent of my attention is focused on watching you.” Inui turned the page. “When Kaidoh is present, 50 percent of your attention is on his shirt and the fluctuations thereof. 20 percent of your attention is on his shorts.” Inui looked up and Momo wanted to crawl into his locker. “The shorts will be fixed by the end of the month.” Inui looked back to his notebook. “The remainder of your attention is on Echizen.” Inui closed his book and set it on his lap. “I would like to discuss those first two figures with you.”

&-&

Momo-senpai was being quiet, too quiet. Usually he was blabbering on about a new burger topping he wanted to try, but today he just walked with Echizen to the street courts, his gaze straight ahead, his hands holding tight to the handlebars of his bike. Momo opted to walk the bike today instead of having Echizen ride with him, as was the custom.

Echizen sighed. Conversation was not his strong point, but the silence was annoying. “What did Inui-senpai want?”

Momo stopped walking and stared at the ground. “He – he wanted me to stay away from Mamushi. He thinks I have a crush on him.” Momo’s nose scrunched up and his eyebrows moved down. It was weird but (Echizen could now admit these things about Momo and not feel too sick) cute.

“Don’t you?” It came out in Echizen’s usual, bored tone, for which the freshman was grateful. He didn’t want to sound desperate or needy. He didn’t want to sound like Tomoka.

“No!” Momo continued walking, though his look was still far away. “Why does everyone think that?”

“You watch his ass all the time.”

“I do not!” Momo began to walk faster. The bent spoke on the bike’s tire started to make a crick-crick sound against the bike frame. “He just wears those stupid shorts that keep riding up. He might as well not be wearing anything at all.”

“Momo-senpai, your nose is bleeding.” Echizen handed Momo a handkerchief and continued toward the street courts. If Momo-senpai wanted to deny the fact that he had a crush on Kaidoh-senpai, Echizen wasn’t going to stop him. It still didn’t change the fact that Momo was always watching Kaidoh, yelling at Kaidoh, talking about Kaidoh, and chose, more often than not, to warm up with Kaidoh when Inui-senpai was busy with manager things. Echizen beat Kaidoh, so he couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. Sure Kaidoh was taller and had more muscle and less clothing, but Echizen was better at tennis than Kaidoh, so that should shut out those other factors.

Emotions sucked. Tennis was much better. Echizen picked up his pace. The street courts were just ahead.

&-&

“I don’t understand why Kamio had to bring me along.” Serve. “Why didn’t he make Ishida do this? Ishida wouldn’t mind. Sakurai might get mad, but it would be better than playing against all of these low-level players.” Topspin. “Kamio’s just doing this so he can get on Tachibana’s good side. Normal people would tell someone they have a crush on them, not sneak around and get their teammates involved in stupid love plots that will never work.” Drop shot. “Forty-love.” Serve. “Why aren’t they here yet? I have homework to do. Morimoto-sensei gave us too much to read this week. Economics texts shouldn’t be so long. Why do we need to study economics if we want to play tennis?” Slice. “Kamio isn’t even playing, he’s just standing at the baseline, waiting for them to get here. They probably won’t show up.” Topspin. “I wanted to watch TV today. There’s a program on sharks tonight and now I’m going to miss it because Kamio wants to play matchmaker for Seigaku.” Slice, a little harder this time. “I hate Seigaku. They don’t know what it’s like to work hard for a goal. Everything’s so easy for them.” Topspin. “We’ll show them at nationals. We’ll defeat them and it will be Seigaku’s turn to feel disappointment.” There, the muscle twitched. “Just watch Seigaku, Fudomine will show you true strength.” Blink. “Game, Ibu-Ka…” Blink. Kamio was gone “Game. Ibu Shinji.”

&-&

“Hoi, Momoshiro!” Kamio ran up to Momo, smiling. “Shinji and I are bored. Come play some doubles with us.”

Momo did not want to play doubles against Shinji and Kamio. Shinji and Kamio were good at doubles, he and Echizen…well, they weren’t. “We’re just going to practice a little. We’re not looking for a real game.”

“Come on,” Kamio tugged at Momo’s arm. “You can be on my team and Shinji can be on Echizen’s. It’ll be good practice.”

Momo was going to argue, but Echizen was already walking toward Ibu. Oh well, one game wouldn’t hurt. “Eh, sure.”

“Great, let’s go!” Momo’s arm was nearly wrenched out of place as Kamio dashed off, still with a firm hold on Momo.

&-&

“The only reason I’m playing with you is because Kamio asked me to and he bought me lunch last week when I left my wallet at home. Please don’t think that I actually want to play doubles with you. I don’t even like doubles. I play singles, singles two. It’s my spot. I noticed you were an alternate in the Hyoutei match. How sad. I suppose when you have senpai like yours it’s inevitable.”

“Shut up.” Echizen was tired of listening to Ibu go on and on about stupid things. “I was an alternate because Buchou didn’t want me to get hurt playing Kabaji.” Ibu had a wonderful habit of finding Echizen’s sorest points and talking about them, at great length, in front of everyone. “Let’s hurry up and beat them so we can go home.”

&-&

In the end, Ibu and Echizen won. They looked really good together, really harmonized. It made Momo feel a little bit bitter. Of course, Ibu and Echizen were both really good, so it wasn’t impossible for them to play well as a doubles team. It was just a little disappointing, that was all.

“Momoshiro, telephone!”

Momo picked up the extension in his room, answering with a less than enthusiastic, “Hai.”

“Momo, it’s Inui.” Great, another death threat. “I’ve been tabulating my data for the day and, given the information I gleaned from your match today, I am eighty-four percent certain that Echizen has developed a deep emotional attachment to you.”

“What?” Inui was at the street courts? Where?

Inui sighed over the phone. “Echizen has a crush on you.” Momo heard some mumbling and typing in the background. Inui was no doubt logging Momo’s reactions. “It would be in your best interests to pursue a date with him. He will not decline your offer and there is a fifty-two percent chance that you reciprocate his feelings, despite your infatuation with Kaidoh.” Did Inui-senpai just growl? “Goodnight Momoshiro.”

The dial tone was blaring in time with Momo’s racetrack heart. Surely Inui was lying to keep Momo away from Kaidoh, even though Momo was not, in any way, shape, or form attracted to Kaidoh. That would be gross. Dating Echizen would also be gross. Echizen was young (only a year, but that was a lot mentally, or so Momo’s older sister said) and his father was crazy and Echizen wasn’t into lovey stuff, just tennis. Tennis, while really fun, made for bad dates. Inui-senpai was probably just looking at his data after drinking too much juice. Momo decided to pretend the day never happened.

&-&

Kikumaru was not pleased. He left the operation alone for one day and no progress was made. Momo and Echizen were standing _further_ from eachother than ever before.

“Eiji.” Oishi’s hand landed on Kikumaru’s shoulder and the redhead instinctively reclined back before realizing that he was in the middle of practice.

“Oishi, practice isn’t fun today.” Kikumaru scooted a bit away from his doubles partner – Oishi wanted to look professional now that he was Tezuka’s replacement – but turned to stare into Oishi’s eyes. Oishi would know what to do, but Oishi never approved of Kikumaru’s plans, even when they were really brilliant and would help people. Oishi didn’t believe in interfering.

“Are you feeling okay?” Oishi moved forward and draped a hand across Kikumaru’s forehead.

“Momo and Echizen are fighting. Look.” Kikumaru pointed to the two kouhai.

“Do you know why?” Oishi moved to stand behind Kikumaru.

“Nuh-uh. They were fine yesterday, but today they’re not talking or looking at eachother or yelling or anything.” Eiji exhaled and tried to calm down. The hand that Oishi was running up and down Kikumaru’s lower back was not helping in the effort to ease Eiji’s heart rate.

“Mom invited you over for dinner tonight, to repay you for having me yesterday.” Oishi’s words were soft and low, a whisper that slid through Kikumaru’s skin and settled in his stomach in small whirls and eddies.

Kikumaru bit his lip. He should meet with the others tonight. There were several things that needed to be flushed out if their plan was to bear fruit. On the other hand, it was rare that Kikumaru got to eat dinner with Oishi’s family. “What time?” Maybe he could phone Marui-kun and they could arrange a meeting later.

“Seven.” Oishi’s hand continued to run along Kikumaru’s back. Eiji’s legs were beginning to feel a little wobbly.

Kikumaru’s phone rang. He’d meant to turn it off for practice, but he sometimes accidentally forgot. Oishi wouldn’t punish him too badly for it, not like Buchou would. With a shaky hand he checked the caller ID. It was “Tensai-san.” Oishi’s hand was still in motion, but Kikumaru had to take the call. “Hey!” He answered as excitedly as he could. Oishi’s hand didn’t cease its movements.

“I’ve learned that Inui is the one messing everything up. I arranged for Echizen and Momo’s phones to be tapped, and I recorded Inui calling Echizen and Momo last night. Jirou and I are going to examine the tapes and form a counter plan tonight. Kamio’s busy stalking Tachibana. You in?”

Eiji couldn’t breathe properly. Oishi was scratching _the_ spot, the one that sent electricity up Kikumaru’s spine and turned him into one big, fuzzy, purring ball of happy. “Busy,” he managed, unconsciously moving back, closer to Oishi. “I’ll call you tomorrow, bye.” Eiji snapped his phone shut and dropped it into his pocket. “Oishiiii, people can see!”

Oishi laughed but pulled back a little. “They don’t see anything but you trying to snuggle with me, and that’s nothing new.” Oishi gave Eiji’s rear a soft pat and walked toward the courts, grinning. “Come on, practice time. I take it you freed your schedule up for tonight?”

Kikumaru, who believed himself long past the blushing phase, lit up like a hormonal bonfire. “Yeah, but I’m _really_ busy tomorrow, so no more cheating!” Marui and Jirou could handle the Inui Intrusion. They were smart-types. Kikumaru would handle Oishi and get back to helping Momo and Echizen in the morning.

“Oh, Eiji? That’s twenty laps for the phone.” Oishi waved over his shoulder, his fukubuchou mask solidly in place.

Kikumaru whined, but started running. He’d make Oishi pay for the laps later.


	5. Chapter 5

Jirou yawned to hide his awkwardness. Marui was staring at his hickey again. It wouldn’t be so bad if Marui didn’t keep laughing every time he saw it. Eiji and Kamio weren’t coming, which meant that Jirou was alone in dealing with Marui. Being alone with Marui meant suffering through the self-proclaimed tensai’s snickers and stares. It wasn’t Jirou’s fault Atobe was feeling territorial. It was Oshitari’s fault for mentioning that Jirou’d been skipping practice a lot lately. Oshitari was going to suffer as soon as Jirou was done with this project.

A beep drew Jirou’s attention away from homicide. “What was that?” he asked, searching about the room for the source of the noise.

Marui’s room was what Jirou imagined a Bond villain’s library would look like. He had four computer screens, all of them displaying various grids and dots. A fifth computer screen had Minesweeper and an unfinished history essay. There were wires along the base of the wall, zip-tied neatly together. Marui’s bookshelf was host to such titles as _Demons and How They Work for You_ , _Build Your Own Combat Robot_ , _Amateur Surveillance_ , and _The Joy of Cooking: Dessert Edition_. Marui wasn’t a tensai, Marui was just scary.

“That’s the proximity alert. Someone just entered our block.” Marui walked to his desk and pulled out a clipboard. “It’s probably Shinowa-san. She walks her dog at about this time.” He put the clipboard down after making a small mark on it.

“I didn’t know you could do this.” Jirou indicated the room with a sweep of his hand.

“You didn’t need to know.” Marui’s eyes found Jirou’s hickey for the seventh time that hour. “How’s Atobe doing?” Marui was laughing again.

“He’s fine…now.” Jirou started as another beep, long and shrill, sounded.

Marui slid into the chair at the computer station. “Momo’s making an outbound call. I’ll put it on the speaker.”

&-&

Echizen answered his phone. After talking with Inui-senpai, Echizen didn’t really want to talk to anyone; not now, not ever again. Inui was embarrassing. The call was from Momo-senpai, though, and if he was calling to tell Echizen not to wait for him in the morning, then the call was important. “Hai Momo-senpai?”

“Echizen,” Momo trailed off into burbles then started again. “Echizen, did you get a call from Inui-senpai?”

Oh god. Oh god oh god oh god. This wasn’t the conversation that Echizen wanted to have, not with Momo, and particularly not after Inui’s phone lecture on “being true to your feelings.” Taken up in thought and dread, Echizen failed to respond to Momo’s question.

“Echizen? You there?”

“Hai, Momo-senpai.” Ryoma’s hands were shaking. The phone was slippery from palm-sweat.

“Hai, you’re there or hai, he called you?” Echizen’s only consolation was that Momo sounded no better than Echizen felt. Maybe Inui gave him the talk, too.

“Both.”

“Oh.” Yep, it sounded like Momo’d received a weird call, too. Inui-senpai needed to die. Maybe he’d drink a bad batch of Inui Juice and just fall over. “Do you, uh, want to talk about it?”

“No.” Echizen wiped his hands on his pajama pants. “I’m going to bed, Momo-senpai. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Yeah.” Momo hung up and Echizen turned his phone to silent and shoved it in the bottom drawer, right next to the random Momo notes that Inui somehow knew Echizen kept. The notes would be taken care of this weekend. Echizen would put the ashes in a bag and give them to Inui-senpai. Echizen would tell Inui-senpai to mix them in his juice and choke on them.

&-&

“I’m going to kill Inui,” Marui proclaimed, shutting off his monitor. “We’re right back where we started, if not way behind.” Marui’s bubblegum accented every other word of his speech. Normally he took his time with the bubbles, luxuriating in the satiny feel of bubblegum sliding against his tongue. Now, the strawberry-mint gum was losing its flavor.

Jirou stood from his slouch on the bed and put a hand on Marui’s shoulder. Marui figured it was to keep him from doing rash things, like finding the data tennis player and spitting gum in his eye. “We can’t go forward without letting the others know about this. Leave a message for Kikumaru to meet us at the parlor tomorrow after practice. I’ll call Kamio. We’ll figure something out.” Jirou looked at his cell phone. “I should get going before mom thinks I’ve fallen asleep on the train again.”

Marui nodded in agreement but couldn’t bring himself to put as much cheer into wishing Jirou off as he would’ve liked. There had to be something that could bring those two idiots together, if even just to admit that they had some mutual attraction. At this rate, even that would satisfy the mission. With a snort, Marui spit his gum into the trashcan and prepared for bed.

&-&

Kamio stared at his banana split, looking for answers. None came.

“Let’s review the facts,” Kikumaru said, moving his straw through a choco-berry smoothie. “Fact one: Momo likes Echizen. Fact two: Momo likes Kaidoh. Fact three: Kaidoh is not quite dating Inui but will be soon. Fact four…”

“Inui is an ass,” Kamio grumbled, unable to help himself.

“Agreed,” Marui said around a chocolate chip cookie. It was Marui’s tenth jumbo-sized cookie in the last half hour.

“Fact four,” Kikumaru continued, huffing slightly, “Echizen likes Momo. Fact five: Echizen has a crush on Buchou.”

“Really!?” Jirou asked, wide-eyed, abandoning his fudge sundae. “And Fuji hasn’t killed him yet?”

“Fujiko and Buchou both know and, since Buchou’s in Germany, it’s not a problem right now. They’re going to deal with it when and if it creates a situation.” Kikumaru sipped his smoothie and frowned. “Where was I?”

“You just finished at fact five,” Kamio answered after a look to the notebook he was using to keep minutes. Kamio didn’t understand why, whenever he was in a club, he always had to be the secretary. Sure his writing was neat, but it wasn’t fair.

“Right. Fact six: Echizen and Momo are aware of facts one through five. Fact seven: Inui created unneeded tension between Echizen and Momo that we must now reverse. The question is, how are we going to get them back on track?” Kikumaru took a long draw of his smoothie.

Kamio had an idea, but it was embarrassing, particularly because he’d seen it on a shoujo drama the previous night. Maybe one of the others would think of something.

“Kamio’s got an idea.” Jirou smiled around his spoon. “He’s wrinkling up his nose like a bunny, so he’s got to be thinking of something good.”

“I-I just thought of something I saw on TV the other day.” Oh god, they were going to laugh at him. “This girl and this guy saw some people making out in the park and then were trapped in a shed together overnight. They were stuck so long, they started talking about the people in the park and then they got around to confessing.” Kamio closed his eyes and waited for the mockery to come.

“So _that’s_ what got Yumiko and Shinichiro together! I missed the episode because I was planning with Marui and then, when I read the profiles for today’s show I couldn’t’ believe that they were talking about a first date! That’s so _awesome_!” In his excitement, Jirou lunged over the table, soaking his shirt in chocolate sauce and melted ice cream.

“Ah, you watch Powerhouse Love, too? Why didn’t you tell me?! We could’ve put it on while you were there!” Marui’s eyes welled up with tears.

Kikumaru blinked. “Powerhouse Love?”

“It’s the _best_!” Jirou proclaimed, fist in the air. “Come on, I’ve got the first season on DVD. You _have_ to watch it.

“I can probably find last night’s episode online. I’ll record tonight’s so we can watch it after we’re done.” Marui pulled out his cell phone. “Hi mom. Is it okay if I stay at Akutagawa-kun’s tonight? No, I’ve finished my work for the weekend.” Marui smiled, so the answer must’ve been affirmative. “I’ll stop by and feed the fish before I head out. Thanks mom, love you.” Marui put his phone away. “Awesome, I’ve got clearance to stay out all weekend.”

Kikumaru, still looking skeptical, took out his phone. “Hey, is dad home? Put him on. No, it’s none of your business, now put him on. No, I’m not on a date. Put dad on the phone.” Despite his growling tone, Kikumaru was smiling. Kamio wondered what it must be like to have siblings. Being an only child in a poorer neighborhood, Kamio often found himself jealous of people like Kikumaru and Jirou, who had money and community and all the wonderful things in life. “Dad, can I stay at a friend’s house tonight? Homework’s all done, I promise. No, it’s not Oishi’s. Some friends and I are going to watch some TV. No, it’s not Oishi. Daaaaaaaaad, that’s not funny.” Kikumaru’s eyes went wide. “You had better not say that if he calls! You promised you wouldn’t tell. I’m so disowning all of you! Stop laughing!” Kikumaru pulled the phone away from his ear and glared at it. “I’m going and you better not say anything!” he yelled at the phone before hanging up.

“Sounded fun,” Marui laughed, popping a new piece of gum in his mouth.

“Dad knows about me an’ Oishi and he’s always teasing me about it, says he wants to make sure Oishi and I are not,” Kikumaru cleared his throat and pitched his voice down low, “partaking in unchaperoned, illicit activities.”

“Are you?” Jirou asked, leaning forward again. Kamio moved the empty ice cream bowl a split second before Jirou’s shirt would’ve received a second chocolate coating.

Kikumaru blushed and stammered. “That’s none of your business!”

“We’ll take that as a yes,” Kamio snickered. He didn’t need to call home, he always spent the weekend away when he could. If they needed him, they’d call.

Jirou jumped up, standing on the bench. “To Powerhouse Love!” he declared, tossing some money down on the table.

Kamio quietly scooted out of the booth, tossing their waitress an apologetic smile though a quick glance at the stack of yen on the table proved to be plenty to compensate for the waitress’ ire. She would get used to them, in time.

  
&-&

Eighteen hours and no sleep after leaving the ice cream parlor, Kikumaru was crying, Marui was wiping Cheetoh dust off his mouth, and Kamio was staring at the blank television screen as if there were still programming on. Jirou, by contrast, was ready to start scheming.

“So, now that we’ve all seen the episode, what do we think about using it as a model?” Jirou ran to Kamio’s bag and got the minutes notebook. “Here Kamio-kun, you’ll want to get this down.”

Kamio blinked. “Huh?”

Jirou did a writing mime. “Take notes,” he said. He threw his arms out wide. “Big plans.”

“Right, notes,” Kamio yawned. “Can’t we do this after a nap?”

“No naps!” Jirou proclaimed, causing Kamio to jolt upright. “We have to get this done while everything’s fresh in our minds!” Jirou was far too excited to sleep. How could they sleep when they were on the verge of a breakthrough?

Marui reached into his backpack and took out a fresh pack of gum. “Well, let’s start with the ‘inspiring display.’ What kind of display do we want and, more importantly, who’s gonna do it?”

“I nominate Kikumaru and Oishi,” Kamio garbled out. Kamio’s eyes were a little bloodshot. Maybe he _should_ take a nap.

“No way! Oishi would be too embarrassed. I can’t ask him to do that!” Kikumaru’s tomato impression was really very good.

“Don’t even think about nominating Keigo and I. He’d kill you if he heard you even suggested it,” Jirou warned. The thought of Atobe publicly awing people with his prowess was funny, but Jirou found that he didn’t want anyone to see more of Atobe than what shirt and shorts covered. Atobe’s prowess belonged to Jirou and Jirou only, thank you.

“That leaves Marui and Kamio.” Kikumaru was smiley, which meant he had an idea. “I nominate Marui-kuuuuuuun.” Jirou wondered what Marui’d done to Kikumaru that warranted the vengeful gleam in the acrobatic player’s eyes.

“Sorry, can’t.” Marui’s voice was calm, but his hands were having trouble unwrapping another piece of gum. “No boyfriend, no girlfriend, no nothing. Can’t.”

“I’m sure you can think of something,” Kikumaru continued to smile.

Oh-ho, Marui was blushing. This was good. “Is there something you’d like to tell us Marui-kun?” Jirou asked, scooting toward his friend and swinging an arm over his shoulder. “Someone caught your eye?”

“No-one’s caught anything.” Marui wiggled out of Jirou’s hold.

“Don’t worry so much. Kamio’s asleep, so it won’t go in the minutes,” Jirou pointed to where Kamio sat, slumped over and drooling. “You can tell us anything; we’re all brothers here.” Jirou gave what he imagined was a reassuring smile. Marui scooted away, obviously unimpressed.

Luckily, Kikumaru was ready with details. “I saw him talking to a kouhai the other day,” Kikumaru whispered.

Marui covered his face with his hands. “Shut up!”

“He looked a little scary, but he had his cute moments. Oishi thinks he likes you, too. He kept trying to hold your hand.” Kikumaru grinned, white teeth gleaming.

“He is scary,” Marui grumbled through his hands. “He’s scary and I don’t like him. Besides, he likes our fukubuchou.”

“I thought you said your fukubuchou and your buchou were nearly married,” Jirou asked, not believing a word Marui said. If any of it were true, then Marui would be able to look the group in the eye and not hide behind his hands.

“They are. Our buchou’s in the hospital, though, and Akaya’s been hanging on to Sanada like a leech.” There was a little growl in Marui’s voice; very promising. “Yukimura-buchou’s going to assign him infinite laps if he irritates Sanada much more.”

Jirou saw Yukimura Seiichi play at nationals the previous year. Jirou did not, under any circumstances, want to play against or get on the bad side of the frighteningly talented boy. If Yukimura lived life like he played tennis, he was bound to be a vicious individual. “It’s your duty as a good senpai to save him,” Jirou concluded. “Kikumaru and I will arrange your dialogue. All you’ll have to do is go with the moment.” Jirou winked at Kikumaru while Marui was busy wallowing in embarrassment. They were going to help their friend _and_ get Echizen and Momo together. Life didn’t get any cooler than this. “Now that we’ve got the display, we need to figure out the confinement…”

&-&

Kirihara stared at the two boys blocking his path. One was wearing a Seigaku uniform (he recognized it from the day he had bus troubles), the other was Hyoutei. Yanagi-senpai showed them footage of Hyoutei to prepare them for nationals. It was a shame that Hyoutei wouldn’t be at nationals this year; Kirihara wanted to play Atobe.

“Kirihara Akaya, we need to speak with you,” the Seigaku member said. He had a Band-Aid on his cheek. How weird. Still, they came all this way just to see him, so he might as well hear them out. Kirihara stood, waiting for them to continue.

“We come on behalf of your senpai, Marui Bunta,” the Hyoutei guy said. He looked really sleepy.

“Marui-senpai?” Marui-senpai was awesome. He had several sneaky net-plays and he was good at math, which Kirihara was not.

“We want you to kiss him,” Seigaku said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“No.” Kirihara was not going to kiss his senpai. First, kissing was disgusting. Second, Marui-senpai was Marui-senpai and Kirihara didn’t want to upset him. Third, Marui played doubles with Jackal-senpai so, while they didn’t look like it, they must be dating, because when you played doubles, you dated.

The sleepy Hyoutei’s eyes shot open and Kirihara found himself stuck in place by their gaze. “We’ll pay you.” Hyoutei removed some money from his blazer pocket. “Would 5400 yen be appropriate?”

Wow, that was a lot of money. Kirihara could buy that new pair of sneakers he wanted. “What’s the catch?”

“You have to bring his gum back to us,” Seigaku said. He was smiling; wide and cat-like.

Kirihara smiled, already thinking that he’d buy his new shoes with the red trim. The red trim was much better than the black or blue. “I can do that,” he said haughtily.

“Good,” Seigaku said. “Be to the designated place in an hour and follow these directions.”

Kirihara took the folded piece of paper and watched the two walk away, whispering to eachother. This was going to be some easy, easy money.


	6. Chapter 6

  
Talking, in the abstract, about kissing your kouhai in public was quite different from actually having to perform the act. The actual execution of the plan was nerve-wracking and embarrassing. Kirihara hadn’t even shown up yet. Marui paced in the stands above the street tennis courts. He was wearing, per Jirou’s insistence, a pair of low-slung black jeans and a mustard colored t-shirt. Jirou claimed that mustard yellow highlighted Marui’s hair. Jirou was not high on Marui’s Favorite People list at the moment, neither was Kikumaru, who had a camcorder “to get info on Echizen and Momo.” This plan had better work.

Marui’s phone rang. “Hello? Oh, Kirihara-kun. What’s the matter?” Faking nonchalance when you knew your kouhai was being bribed to sexually molest you was also not easy. Marui resolved to remain professional. “I’m at the street courts. I’m supposed to meet some friends, but they’re running late.” This whole setup was stupid. Kirihara was going to see through it. “Sure, come on down. I’ll take a look at the serve and see if I can help.” Marui hung up the phone and walked down to Kikumaru, who was cleverly disguised in a Fudomine uniform, borrowed from Kamio, who was disguised in a Hyoutei uniform, borrowed from Jirou, who was hiding in a bush near Echizen and Momo’s usual court. “Akaya just called. He said he’d be down in about ten minutes. What’s Momo and Echizen’s ETA?”

Kikumaru consulted a small notepad. “Fifteen minutes. Make sure the display lasts until you hear the signal.” The signal was Kamio cawing like a crow and using the word ‘tamale’ three times. The display was to begin toning down at the first tamale and finish on the third.

“I guess I’ll go prepare for my public humiliation, then,” Marui sighed, his back hunching just a bit. “I can’t believe you’re making me do this.”

“Just take it for the team!” Jirou called from his bush.

&-&

Kamio watched Kirihara stroll past the street courts, making a direct line for Marui. Marui was standing around, doing a convincing ditched-friend impression.

“Psst. I can’t see anything,” Jirou whispered from behind. “Step to the left.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be waiting for Echizen and Momo?” Kamio asked the tree he was leaning against.

“They won’t be here for a while. The bus they take is running late.” Was Jirou actually laughing?”

“Shouldn’t we signal to Marui so he knows not to start the display?” Were Kamio the one forced to kiss Kirihara, he’d be livid if the display was all for nothing.

“Nah, I’m sure they can string it out. We’ll give the signal to draw it out if he looks this way.” Yes, Jirou was definitely laughing. “I’m going to test the camera, just to make sure it works.”

Kamio stepped away from the tree and went to get a soda. When Marui found out about this, he was going to kill them.

&-&

Marui-senpai was kind of cute when he was upset. His lips puffed out and his eyes sharpened. Maybe kissing him wouldn’t be so bad. It would be better if there weren’t a lot of people watching, but oh well. They were dumb and weren’t good enough to practice on their own school’s courts. Their opinions didn’t matter.

“Akaya!” Marui waved Kirihara over. “The courts are busy, but I put us in line for a game. There are two rotations left. I’ll take a look at your serve form, though. Once we assess the weaknesses there, we can figure out why your arm’s tiring out so fast.”

Kirihara stared. Maybe he couldn’t do this. Jackal would hear about it and be upset, which meant he’d tell Sanada, and Sanada would make Kirihara run laps. Also Marui-senpai was so innocent and nice, despite his really awesome ideas on how to annoy Sanada and get away with it.

Still 5400 yen was a lot of money, and Kirihara’s father wasn’t going to buy him new shoes when Kirihara just begged for a new tennis bag last month. Kirihara took a deep breath, steeling his nerves. He would do this. Marui-senpai was the nice, forgiving type. Besides, Jackal-senpai never paid any attention to Marui-senpai, which was a crime. Tensai needed to be nurtured or they turned out like that Fuji Syusuke from Seigaku: crazy. Kirihara, as a good kouhai, should make sure his senpai didn’t go crazy.

“Kyah!” Kirihara launched himself at Marui, grabbing hold of the other boy’s arms before pressing their lips together.

&-&

“What kind of training do they do at Rikkai?” Kikumaru asked Kamio as the two stood, dumbstruck.

“I guess this could work as endurance training,” Kamio said. “They’re either breathing recycled air or breathing through their noses. They haven’t come up since Kirihara put his hand up Marui’s shirt.”

Kikumaru knew he was blushing but, like everyone else on the now-silent tennis court, he couldn’t look away. Marui was really taking his job seriously. The display looked really authentic. “Where are Echizen and Momo? Those two won’t be able to keep this up forever.”

“Yeah, those two’re going to start losing clothes if they don’t’ slow down.” Kamio sniffed and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

“Let’s have some faith in Brother Bunta,” Jirou piped up. The surprise appearance caused Kamio to let out a squeak.

“Don’t do that!” Kamio growled, shaking a fist at Jirou.

Jirou snapped a picture. “I can so sell these at the next Rikkai game.” Jirou’s eyes were sparkling. Kikumaru moved away.

“He’s going to kill you when he finds out you’re taking pictures of him and not of our targets.” Kikumaru didn’t want to be around for that argument. Marui would win. He may look cute, but he had long nails and wasn’t afraid to use them in a fight. Kikumaru saw Marui fight another student over the last lemon custard tart at a bakery once. Marui got the pastry and banned from the bakery while his opponent went home with a three inch slash across his cheek. Finally, something registered. “What did you call him?” Kikumaru asked, looking to Jirou.

“Brother Bunta. Doesn’t it sound cool? Every secret society should have special names for eachother.” Of the four of them, Jirou knew the most about secret societies. He was always toting around some book or the other. Last week, it was the Masons. From what Kikumaru knew, secret societies usually had hats and handshakes and special codewords. Brother Bunta didn’t sound too bad, he guessed. Kikumaru would look into the hat thing.

&-&

Kirihara wasn’t a bad kisser. His tongue was long, thin, and thus able to dart about Marui’s mouth in a squiggly, pleasing sort of way. But, despite the tongue in his mouth and the hand moving in small circles and scratches along his back, Marui was focused on the task at hand, that being waiting for Echizen and Momo to get to the courts before Kirihara and Marui reached a place that would make seeing one another on a daily basis very uncomfortable. Marui tried to let out a controlled “Akaya” in hopes of giving himself and Kirihara a breather from their vigorous kissing, but he only managed the “Ak” before Kirihara’s tongue trailed from Marui’s mouth, around his cheek, and down to the dip of Marui’s collarbone. The combination of air and wet skin stole the breath out of Marui in a ragged exhalation.

&-&

While Kirihara removed Marui’s shirt, Jirou sorted through the photos on his digital camera. He didn’t have a spare memory card with him, so he had to delete some of the lesser quality photos if he wanted to capture the whole display and still have room left for Echizen and Momo, who were now twenty minutes late. Maybe Kamio should go find them. “Hey Brother Akira, would you mind…”

“Where is his hand going?” Kamio asked, wiping his nose on his sleeve again. Jirou was going to throw that blazer out and get a new one. The stains would never come out.

“Well, Marui’s working on Kirihara’s shirt now, so I’m guessing Kirihara is protesting and shoving his hands down Marui’s pants so that the shirt can’t come off.” Kikumaru said this while jotting some notes down. “1200 yen says that Marui rips the shirt.”

“With those arms? No way! You’re on.” Kamio reached into his pocket and took out the required bet.

“I have to side with Kamio on this one.” Jirou held out his money just as the rip echoed across the courts, followed by a gasp from the crowd. Evidently, they didn’t think Marui could do it either.

“Suckers,” Kikumaru laughed, snatching up his winnings. “Zen-”

“Shut up!” Kamio stalked off toward the park entrance. “I’m going to go look for those two idiots before Marui-“

“Brother Bunta,” Jirou corrected with a smile and a waggling of his finger.

“- _Brother Bunta_ gets arrested for public indecency.”

“Bye!” Jirou and Kikumaru sang, turning to the digital camera as soon as Kamio was out of sight.

&-&

Echizen and Momoshiro stood at the seldom-used west entrance to the street courts. From there, they could hear a great commotion, mostly hooting and whistling, but couldn’t see the source of said commotion. They did, however, see a familiar mop of red-brown hair.

“Why is Kamio-kun wearing a Hyoutei uniform?” Echizen asked Momo despite the fact that he knew his senpai wouldn’t know. Their walk to the courts had been an uncomfortably silent one, and Echizen would take whatever opportunity he could to break the tension.

“Maybe he went spying today?” Momo waved and shouted, “Oi!”

Kamio ran up to the Seigaku duo. He was panting and there was blood on his sleeve. “Hey. You guys should come check the action out over at the first court. We’re trying to figure out who these two guys are.” Kamio took hold of Echizen’s hand.

Echizen grabbed hold of Momo. “You’re coming Momo-senpai.” Echizen refused to be alone in a wild, hooting mass of tennis players.

When they finally arrived at the scene, Echizen’s eyes went wide and he immediately turned away. Two shirtless guys were kissing at the top of the stadium. Oyaji watched this sort of thing, only with girls, so watching it was obviously going to ruin Echizen’s brain. Echizen wanted to avoid following in his father’s footsteps at all costs, which meant avoiding sex and sexual situations at all costs. Showers didn’t count so long as there was no one else in the shower with you.

“Didn’t that guy come to Seigaku once?” Momo asked, pointing.

Echizen looked up. The kid with the black hair _did_ look familiar. A vision of hundreds of tennis balls scattered across the tennis courts came to mind. “He’s the one that made us stay late, picking up tennis balls.” Echizen reached into his tennis bag and removed a racquet and ball.

Momo’s arms wrapped around Echizen, taking the tennis ball. “You can’t! He didn’t mean to. Besides, that was a long time ago.”

When Momo’s arms didn’t move, Echizen resorted to blushing and pulling down his cap with his free hand. Momo’s gesture didn’t mean anything, but the heat radiating off Momo’s arms was making Echizen blush, just a little. He blamed the pink haired kid and the black haired kid. Still, Echizen didn’t say anything, even when Momo continued to drape over Echizen while watching the two kissing above the courts.

&-&

Marui-senpai was pretty well built for such a small guy. His chest, which Kirihara was currently nibbling on, was tight and compact, dipping every now and then for a nicely defined muscle. But, while Kirihara heard and read all sorts of things about the taste of sweat being sexy, he thought that the taste of sweat was a lot like the taste of dirt. Still, the noises Marui-senpai made when Kirihara’s tongue slid over his nipples was really cool, so Kirihara continued on despite the vile taste.

“You must work out a lot, Marui-senpai,” Kirihara said after a nibble.

Marui panted out a few breaths before responding, “I train a little extra on the weekends. Tensai skills don’t just pop out of thin air.” Marui pushed Kirihara back a little.

“Problem senpai?” Kirihara’s gaze remained on the red spot he’d just left on Marui’s chest. It looked rather pretty, standing out against the white of Marui’s flesh. There should be another one, lower down, to add visual balance.

“This isn’t helping you with your serve.” Marui looked over his shoulder and his skin went a touch paler, allowing the mark to _really_ stand out. “There’s a court full of people watching us.”

Kirihara took Marui by the hips and, after a deep exhalation, hoisted his senpai up. Marui reflexively wrapped his legs around Kirihara’s waist, though his attention remained on the crowded tennis courts below. “They’re just jealous because I got to the tensai first.” Kirihara smiled, licked his lips, then went about making Marui’s abdomen more artistic.

“What about your serve?” Every other word out of Marui’s mouth was accented with “oh” and “ah.”

Kirihara bit at Marui’s side. Marui-senpai should be grateful that Kirihara was braving the disgusting sweat-taste and paying attention to his senpai. He shouldn’t be complaining about stupid things. Besides, Kirihara still needed to get that gum. “We can’t practice if everyone’s crowding the court like that. Kirihara nibbled his way back up to Marui’s mouth, where the gum was and where he could keep his senpai from talking.

&-&

Around him, Momo heard various reactions from the crowd. Some people were saying that the two should get a room, but most were just staring, saying how “hot” the two kissing were. Momo was one of the later, but he wasn’t saying anything, not aloud. It would make Echizen feel uncomfortable, much like Momo’s unintended hug had earlier. Momo would have liked to extend the hug a little more, but alienating Echizen wasn’t worth it. In a month or so, Momo was going to ask Echizen out. First, he had to deal with Inui, who was no doubt telling Echizen lies about Momo. Momo’s heart dropped as he recalled his conversation with Inui two days ago.

Inui-senpai didn’t have to say all of those mean things. He could’ve just said Kaidoh wasn’t interested or asked Momo to stop looking- Momo now admitted he looked- but, instead, Inui recorded Kaidoh and Kaidoh’s thoughts on Momo. The commentary was not flattering, and there was nothing wrong with Momo’s hairstyle. Lots of people liked the spiked look.

Liking Kaidoh was a passing thing anyway, just like the way Echizen looked at Tezuka-buchou. Tezuka-buchou and Fuji-senpai would be engaged if Fuji had his way. Fuji lectured Echizen on proper senpai-kouhai relations right before the Hyoutei match. It didn’t stop Echizen from looking, though. Momo knew Echizen was looking because whenever Momo tried to look at Echizen when Buchou was in the room, the ichinen had a faraway look, like he was thinking about a nice place, a Fuji-free place.

Momo liked Echizen because Echizen understood wanting things that are dangerously off limits. They never talked about any of this, though. That would be awkward.

“Do you want to go?” Momo asked. He hoped Echizen would say no, but he wasn’t going to hold his breath for it.

“Yes. We can play at my house.” Echizen grabbed Momo’s arm and sprint-walked away. Under the cover of his hat, Echizen was blushing down to his neck. He looked really cute when he was flushed.

&-&

Kamio’s throat was raw from cawing and the people around him were wondering why he was shouting ‘tamale’ at the top of his lungs. They could stare all they wanted as far as Kamio was concerned; the most important thing was stopping the display before Marui’s pants slid any lower. Momo and Echizen left ten minutes ago.

“I got a really nice shot of Momo hugging Echizen. Wanna see?” Jirou pushed the digital camera in front of Kamio.

“I think we should concentrate on Brother Bunta’s dignity before we worry about your photo essay.” Kamio moved closer to the display area.

“Don’t worry so much. I think Brother Bunta’s enjoying himself.” Kikumaru draped an arm over Kamio’s shoulder and pointed upward. “See, he’s got a pretty tight hold on Kirihara now.”

“He’s going to fall if he doesn’t hold on,” Kamio countered, his distress giving his words a nasal quality. “His legs are wrapped around Kirihara to keep him from falling.”

Jirou took out a pair of binoculars. “Wow. Brother Bunta’s got some pretty good thigh muscles. Kirihara’s not even helping to support him.”

Kikumaru swiped the binoculars. “No way!” Kikumaru’s jaw fell. “Um…maybe we should stop them. I think Kirihara’s hand just went into Marui’s pants.”

Kamio took the binoculars and pulled them close to his body. “See!” He shoved Kikumaru toward Marui and Kirihara. “Now go stop them.”

Kikumaru shoved Kamio back. “Nuh-uh, this was your idea. You stop them.”

“It wasn’t my idea for them to strip eachother. They improvised that part.” He shoved Kikumaru again. “I got Momo and Echizen here. It’s your turn to do something now.”

Kamio and Kikumaru stopped shoving at eachother when they heard a series of clicks. They turned to Jirou, who was smiling, camera resting against his eye. As one, they dove at the camera, shutting it off before pushing Jirou toward the stairs leading to the top of the stands.


	7. Chapter 7

  
The walk to Echizen’s house was quiet, which was fine as far as Ryoma was concerned. He didn’t want to talk right now because, if they talked, it would probably be about those two kissing guys. Echizen did not want to discuss kissing with Momo-senpai. Discussing kissing with Momo-senpai would lead to a discussion of what Echizen spoke to Inui-senpai about, and those topics were embarrassing.

“Echizen, what did you think of those guys back there?” Trust Momo to mention the things Echizen wanted to avoid.

“Mada mada da ne,” Echizen mumbled, pulling down his hat and quickening his pace.

Momo laughed. “I thought you’d say something like that.” The subject fell, swallowed up in a thick silence.

Once to Echizen’s, both boys immediately headed for the backyard court. “You serve, Momo-senpai,” Echizen said while testing the tension of his racquet.

“You always let me serve. Why don’t you serve?” Momo jumped in place, swinging his arms to warm his muscles up.

“You need to practice your serve more than I do.” It was true. Momo’s serve was powerful, but sloppy. If Momo wanted to be competitive in the later matches of the tournament, he would need to rein his serve in and refine it. If he couldn’t then he’d be stuck as alternate. Echizen didn’t want to have a crush on an alternate.

Momo laughed, his embarrassed laugh, and readied his serve. “Ah, you’ve got the truth of it. Oh well, here it comes!”

&-&

Kamio and Kikumaru shoved at eachother. “I can’t see, move over,” Kikumaru hissed, using his hip to bump Kamio halfway out of the bush they were using for cover.

“Why do we always have to hide in bushes? It’s almost dark out. And why do we have to hide in the _same_ bush?”

Kikumaru shoved at Kamio again. Kamio-kun worried too much. If he didn’t get into the spying spirit soon, he was going to be bounced from the club. “Shhh, they’re about to kiss.”

“Momoshiro’s serving. They’re not even on the same side of the court.” Kamio removed himself from the bush. “I’m going to that bush over there. I’ll text you if I see something.”

“Shhh!”

&-&

Now was as good a time as any, Momoshiro supposed. “Hey Echizen, so about those guys at the courts.”

“Momo-senpai, you’re supposed to be serving.” Was Echizen blushing? The gesture was oddly cute.

“No no, hear me out. When I saw them, I got to thinking that maybe we should, you know?” Momo brought his racquet to his face in a serious of light taps. This sounded a lot smoother when he was saying it in his head.

And look at Echizen, he was standing, taxidermy still, on the tennis courts. His eyes were probably going to dry out really quick. “Momo-senpai, it’s your serve.”

Was that Echizen’s way of saying yes? Did that mean he wanted Momo to make the first move? “Well,” Momo scratched at his head, “I know you’re kinda fixated on Buchou right now, but he’s gone and I thought you might wanna, you know?” Gah, why couldn’t he just say it?

Echizen was at the net now, gripping the plastic roping. “Momo-senpai, _your serve_.” He sounded almost desperate. He must _really_ be waiting for Momo to ask him.

“I know, I know, I’m trying to get there, okay? I asked this girl out last year, and she said no, so I’m really nervous.” Momo frowned at the memory. “I only asked her out because she confessed to Mamushi and I thought that it would piss him off if she suddenly turned around and went out with me, but she said no. It was kinda painful.” A tennis ball collided with Momo’s hair.

“Serve!” Echizen’s hand was still in the air, hanging at the point where he’d released the ball.

“So, what I’m saying is that, while Buchou’s away, you can’t really do much, so maybe, if you want to, we could go out. I know I’m not as good as Buchou or anything, but we could go play tennis and get dinner and maybe go to an amusement park or something.” Momo closed his mouth, aware he was rambling. “So?”

Echizen was sitting on the ground, his head in his hands. “Don’t you like Kaidoh-senpai?”

Damn, he knew about that. “Well…yeah, but that’ll never happen.”

“So I’m second place?” Echizen’s eyebrow twitched, but he was smiling a little, too. “I’m not used to being second place Momo-senpai.”

Momo chuckled and started walking to the net. “With a rival like Mamushi, you get used to it.” Momo paused, a thought striking him. “Why does everyone like the Mamushi, anyway? I’m a lot nicer. Okay, so he does better in school, but I bet it’s because Inui’s been helping him study…”

“You’re much better, Momo-senpai.” Echizen said it in the laughing, condescending way he said Mada Mada Da Ne.

“Don’t just try to stroke my ego, Echizen, I’m being serious here! I’m way better!” It did feel good to have someone stroking his ego, though, even if it was only in jest. Momo cleared his throat. “So, you think we could try it? I’ll be your second place and you can be mine?”

Echizen stood up, casting a look toward the house, probably to make sure his creepy father wasn’t watching. “I’m better than Kaidoh-senpai. I’ll beat him,” Echizen declared, pushing out his fist.

Momo met Echizen’s fist with his own. “Same here. Tezuka may be buchou, but I’ll definitely beat him someday.”

Echizen laughed and pulled a tennis ball out of his pocket. “It’s your serve Momo-senpai. Stop making up reasons to stall your inevitable defeat.”

“I’m going to crush you.”

“Mada mada da ne.”

&-&

“I feel sick,” Marui grumbled, coddling his strawberry shake.

“It’s probably the blood loss,” Jirou reasoned, picking at his banana split. Marui had a large bandage on his neck, covering one of the places Kirihara bit him. Jirou laughed.

“Shut up.” Marui used his straw to flick shake on Jirou.

Jirou’s tongue waved in the air. “Don’t laugh at my hickies anymore.”

“You had a hickey?” Kikumaru’s ears perked up and he began to examine Jirou’s neck. “I don’t see anything.”

“He covered it up with make-up,” Kamio commented, swirling his straw through his chocolate shake. “It was on the left, near the collarbone.” Kamio pointed to the spot on his own neck.

Kikumaru stared at Jirou’s neck, then laughed. “I see it, I see it,” he sang.

“Can we please get down to business?” Jirou asked, scooting away from Kikumaru and toward Marui, who looked like he was ready to end his life by way of a straw to the jugular. “Come on, Brother Bunta, it wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“I can’t believe you made me do that,” Marui sighed dramatically, leaning forward to put his head on the table. “If fukubuchou hears about this, I’ll be running laps all week.”

“Don’t worry so much about it. We accomplished the goal, didn’t we?” Jirou gave Marui a few pats on the back. Kikumaru and Kamio called the previous night to inform the group of Momo and Echizen’s upcoming date, consisting of a game of street tennis and dinner, Momo’s treat, afterwards.

“Tennis isn’t a date,” Kamio argued. “They play tennis all the time.”

“Oishi and I play tennis on dates,” Kikumaru argued.

“You do?” Jirou asked, delighted. Keigo never wanted to play tennis with just the two of them. Keigo liked playing tennis out in the open, where everyone could “be awed by his prowess.”

Kikumaru nodded. “All the time.”

“But you’re the Golden Pair,” Kamio argued. He was near-whisking his shake. “Was your first date tennis?”

“Well…no,” Kikumaru admitted.

Jirou waved his hands in the air, trying to capture his friends’ attention. “I suggest we leave it be for a month and re-evaluate their progress at that time. What say you?”

“I’ll keep the phone monitoring on. Once we get a few hours, we can review it,” Marui suggested, taking out a small notebook and jotting some things down.

“Sounds good.” Kamio was no longer frothing up his shake. “So…I guess I’ll see you guys around then, huh?”

Jirou frowned. “What? We’re not meeting here next week? We can’t have a secret society if we don’t have regular meetings.”

Kikumaru was bouncing in his seat. “Yes! We can’t let our group fall apart just because we don’t have a project.”

Marui nodded in approval around his straw. “So long as I don’t have to kiss Kirihara again,” he warned, sending a particularly nasty glare at Jirou. “So, next week?”

“Next week,” Kamio agreed.

“Definitely.” Jirou shoveled a big bit of banana into his mouth.

“So long as Jirou pays for the snacks,” Kikumaru added, looking at the bill at the end of the table. “Otherwise, we’re going to the Happy Burger.”

“We can’t go to the Happy Burger,” Jirou protested, “Momo and Echizen go to the Happy Burger.”

“Then buy the snacks. Besides, you owe me.” Marui stuck his tongue out at Jirou.

“Do not.”

“You so do.”

“Do not…”


End file.
